Statins May Reduce Risk for HCC in Hep B-Infected Patients

MONDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- For hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected patients, statin use is associated with a reduction in the risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), in a dose-dependent manner, according to a study published online Jan. 23 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Yu-Tse Tsan, from the National Taiwan University College of Public Health in Taipei, and colleagues analyzed data from 33,413 HBV-infected patients from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to investigate the association between statin use and HCC risk. Patients were tracked individually from 1997 to 2008 to detect incident cases of HCC since 1999. The use of statins, other lipid-lowering agents, aspirin, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors was examined.

Over 328,946 person-years of follow-up, the researchers identified 1,021 HCCs in the HBV cohort, representing an incidence rate of 310.4 HCCs per 100,000 person-years. There was a dose-response association between statin use and the risk of HCC. Compared with no statin use (less than 28 cumulative defined daily doses [cDDD]), the adjusted hazard ratios were 0.66 for statin use of 28 to 90 cDDDs, 0.41 for 91 to 365 cDDDs, and 0.34 for more than 365 cDDDs.

"Statin use may reduce the risk for HCC in HBV-infected patients in a dose-dependent manner," the authors write.